NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA (AP) – Detectives in the Virginia city where a six-year-old shot his teacher have finished their criminal investigation and turned it over to the local prosecutor’s office for review, the police chief for Newport News said on Tuesday.
Chief Steve Drew spoke about the case during a Facebook live chat, although he offered few details.
The boy used his mother’s nine millimetres (mm) handgun when he shot and wounded teacher Abby Zwerner as she taught her class at Richneck Elementary on January 6, police have said.
Police said the mother’s gun was purchased legally.
The parents’ attorney, James S Ellenson, has said the weapon was secured on a top shelf in the mother’s closet and had a trigger lock.
Drew said his department’s investigation was turned over on Tuesday morning to the local prosecutor, known as the Commonwealth’s Attorney, who will determine if any charges will be filed.
“I totally understand people would like to have a case open and shut, that’s just not what we have here,” Drew said. Drew described a complicated investigation that involved co-ordinating interviews with first-graders, which required permission from their parents as well as the expertise of a child psychologist.
Detectives also had to interview teachers and follow up on various leads as new information came to light.
Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard E Gwynn told The Associated Press that the city’s detectives handed over three binders of information to his office.
Those files do not include the body camera footage of dozens of police officers who responded to the shooting.
That video will also be reviewed. “It’s a lot of information and we’re going to carefully review it as we do in every case,” Gwynn said.
Legal experts have said that even though it is theoretically possible under Virginia law to criminally charge a six-year-old child.
There are numerous obstacles to doing so and it’s highly unlikely that any prosecutor would even try.
